DOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg is a points and miles fan — but he tells TPG he turns down the free upgrades

17.02.2024 - 15:11 / thepointsguy.com / Pete Buttigieg / Airlines

It takes a traveler to know travel.

Pete Buttigieg is arguably the most prominent Secretary of Transportation to serve since the cabinet position was created in the 1960s.

Some of that is just smart politicking.

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Americans have become increasingly frustrated with airlines and air travel. Since taking office, Buttigieg has been visible at the forefront of various Biden administration initiatives and has pushed for passenger rights, limits on "junk fees" and better operational performance among the airlines, while working through a decadeslong air traffic controller shortage that's reached a critical level. Holding the airlines to account is an easy populist win.

But another part of it is that Buttigieg is a frequent flyer for work and an overall travel buff and AvGeek.

"Air travel is a miracle," Buttigieg told TPG during an interview Thursday following a press conference at Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT). "The fact that I'm reading memos in a seat in the sky as part of how I start my Monday morning."

"There's a magic to that, even 100 years into the aviation age, that I hope we never lose track of," he added.

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It's an energizing perspective for someone who travels for work at least once a week, almost entirely on whatever flight he can grab (like most high-ranking officials, Buttigieg has occasionally flown on government aircraft when commercial options weren't viable for various reasons).

And while those trips are all for a purpose — for meetings with stakeholders, events, for the chance to see the real-world impact of various policies — the flights themselves, and the chance to visit various parts of the air travel system firsthand, are useful to him as the industry's chief regulator, he said.

"You see patterns," he said. "It's one thing to see one air traffic control tower; it's another thing to be in 10 of them."

But for Buttigieg, travel has always been about more than the infrastructure and logistics, he said.

As have points and miles.

Buttigieg's father immigrated to the U.S. from Malta while pursuing his doctorate degree. He often flew to Italy in the course of his research, Buttigieg said, which meant accumulating a decent stash of miles over the years.

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"He would save up those miles and points and every couple of years, it meant we could go to Malta to see my family," he said. In the classic tradition of award travel, sometimes that could mean taking a wild routing to score seats at a lower tier on the award chart — like flying from South